Is telltale trying to do too much at once ?
Sorry if i seem angry (I am not) but I just wanted to share some thoughts.
The reason I am asking this question is that I just saw the Law & order trailer and it looks horrible sorry, but the art direction and the whole courtroom gameplay ?? really Law & Order ???
I mean you guys have so many great franchises it seems that lately you have been putting out game after game and as a result gameplay has suffered, I remember when you put out games like sam & max , wallace & gromit, tales of monkey island all great games.
What happened ??? I mean your games have really suffered lately Jurassic Park was a mess it´s heavy rain just without any really choice.
Bttf was fun since I am bttf nut but the gameplay was really uninspired.
I mean I love what you are doing but come on a little more effort than this you can do.
How about cutting down on some franchises and focus on a smaller level instead of trying to make adaptations of everything.
The reason I am asking this question is that I just saw the Law & order trailer and it looks horrible sorry, but the art direction and the whole courtroom gameplay ?? really Law & Order ???
I mean you guys have so many great franchises it seems that lately you have been putting out game after game and as a result gameplay has suffered, I remember when you put out games like sam & max , wallace & gromit, tales of monkey island all great games.
What happened ??? I mean your games have really suffered lately Jurassic Park was a mess it´s heavy rain just without any really choice.
Bttf was fun since I am bttf nut but the gameplay was really uninspired.
I mean I love what you are doing but come on a little more effort than this you can do.
How about cutting down on some franchises and focus on a smaller level instead of trying to make adaptations of everything.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
I disagree.
The courtroom gameplay seems fun and actually original. I haven't played any Phoenix Wright game, but I bet Telltale's Law and Order game offers you more possibilities in the court. You can actually choose more than one answer to the Objection-thingie and the negotiation-part... and you can actually fail! I love games with multiple endings!
However, I also like games that throw you in a crazy-awesome atmosphere. This game does not. The simple models are just taking you away from the gameplay... and I usually wouldn't say that before testing it out myself, but... ugh!
I don't know what the art department was thinking on this one, but they left me with the impression that this game was released in 1995, not 2011.
I'm not a huge fan of Jurassic Park, but the models in that game looked BRILLIANT!! The simple fact that the characters looked so good and were able to actually show Fear and Terror through mere eye-expressions made me WANT to play it!
Now compare those characters with the cardboard cutouts from Law and Order. Someone, somewhere, probably spilled a mug of coffee on a keyboard. Otherwise, I see no logical explanation.
I love this company, but this is the first game I wouldn't play. At all.
...except these have love behind them. :P
Well I did not say my opinion was CORRECT i was just sharing my opinion if you have a problem with that too bad that´s my opinion.
This was the part that bothered me - What on Earth is wrong with Law and Order? It's a 20+ year old franchise! Yes, it's all but died (SVU is exception), but it still was a very well-made show that was very well thought out and pretty much set the precedent for most of modern crime procedurals.
Art direction is horrible? What? You may not like the aesthetic, but it's well directed and executed, as are more of Telltale's titles.
And what really bothered me was that second paragraph, inwhich you claim that Law and Order won't be a good game judged on the fact that it's coming out at the same time as Telltale is working on other projects. Keep in mind Wallace and Gromit's late development occurred whilst Tales was beggining - and many agree with me that Wallace was much better in the ending as opposed to the first two episodes.
The game isn't out yet, judging it on a brief preview/interview and a Behind the Scenes trailer isn't fair at all. In a week, you can come back and claim that the production schedule at Telltale has tampered with the quality of the games - but seeing as we've had ONE game that has had quality that has suffered that may have been because of close proximity to other potential franchises, I'd say you are currently jumping to conclusions.
Yeah but two games at the same time is one thing and both tales of monkey island and wallace & gromit turned out great.
And yes I do think telltale is doing way to much and as a result they are sacrificing gameplay and one rule they really should write down and hang on their wall is LESS IS MORE.
How many developers have more than two franchises in development at the same time ? quality over quantity.
One example is Naughty dog they have focused on two franchises Uncharted and now the recently annouced Last of us.
They have been working the last of us that for the last two years and I would rather see developers taking their time instead of pushing out game after game in a rapid succession.
I respond to the original post as this seems to have developed into a L&O graphics discussion. I take the question "are they doing too much at once?" first and must answer it with a "no".
Just think back only one year, before BTTF was released. "Back then", TTG was always the company that delivered games really fast after the initial announcement. And although sometimes we felt that things were "rushed" back then, it's those games, made by the then really small development team, that stand out as TTG's "quality" games for the old school adventure gamers in here.
In fact, since BTTF, TTG's games have taken much longer to be finished. Prime example is Jurassic Park with a development time of at least one and a half years! That's a complete novelty for TTG. I liked that feeling of "what will I be playing in three months?" when the next franchise announcement was just around the corner. That feeling is so gone. King's Quest, the Walking Dead and Fables were all announced last year (yes, 2010) early this year, and only God knows when they will finally be out.
Also, since BTTF, the number of TTG's employees has been significantly on the rise (and they're still hiring). There were far more co-workers at hand for Jurassic Park and still they took their sweet time (for TTG's self-set standards, that is. Compared to bigger companies, their release schedule is obviously extremely rapid).
What could happen next year was always the plan, that still enigmatic concept of episodic gaming: Several franchises getting their episodes released simultaneously over the year. I am convinced that this was the basic idea when the company started. They tried to start the simultaneous releases with Jurassic Park, but somehow that failed. TTG might give this another shot as soon as the newly established teams have started connecting and things run like clockwork.
Different game franchises, different approaches to gaming, different art direction are to be expected, also that not every game will be for everyone. But the manpower and the creative energy to handle so many franchises at once is there. And although there was quite some disappointment in this last year for me, I could always see that love still poured into these games from TTG's side. The gameplay mechanics of BTTF and JP were obviously conscious initial design choices (made at roughly the same time, ca. June 2010) which happened to run counter the expectations of many of TTG's long-time hardcore fans. I insist that it is a misinterpretation to think that these clearly identifiable gaming philosophies are the result of a rush job.
More Sam & Max is something a fair number of us here, if not all of us, want to see. But is it really something that the rest of the world wants? Is it something that would sell? Given the direction The Devil's Playhouse took, I wouldn't be surprised if many people's default response is 'No'.
Taking a Lovecraftian theme would have put many people off the series, and it's a little tricky to convince people another game would be different to that. People are stupid after all.
That said, next year's the anniversary of Sam & Max. I'd be very surprised if Telltale didn't do something to coincide with that.
As for the others...
Monkey Island is in LucasArt's hands, not Telltale. Much as I'd like another one, I can't see it happening under the current regime.
StrongBad would need the Brothers Chaps, and I think the last game burned them out.
And Wallace and Gromit, unless I'm mistaken, wasn't that big a seller. Not much business sense making a sequel to something that didn't sell that well.
I think Telltale are trying different franchises and seeing it they can branch out of just resurrecting old-school LucasArts games, which is a perfectly legitimate avenue for them to take. Hell, they're still doing something old-school with King's Quest.
But I agree, it's not a direction I'm particularly interested in, and I hope they take a look back as they're moving forward and remember the path that lead them to where they are now. Give 'em time with their new stuff. Maybe they'll do something for old-school fans after that.
...just my two cents.
LucasArts probably won't lend Telltale the Monkey Island license again.
The Brothers Chaps have disappeared.
I don't know if Telltale has the Wallace and Gromit license anymore, but even if they do the game sort of came out unnoticed, and probably wasn't popular enough to warrant a sequel.
Sam and Max Season 4 (or *sigh* Back to the Future Season 2) is the only sequel that we're likely to get from Telltale.
Anyway, is Telltale doing too much? That's a tricky question. On one hand, they've been growing in terms of both budget and staff, so it's expected they'd start producing stuff at a faster rate than they had in the past. At the same time, though, BttF and JP were both colossal disappointments.
I don't think it's that Telltale can't handle all these projects at once, it's just that their game design philosophy seems to have changed. BttF and JP were both exposed to larger audiences than any Telltale game before has had, and it seems they tried to casualize the gameplay for their sake. Hopefully after JP's negative reception they'll have learned that was a mistake and return to how they used to be.
The irony, though, is that the casuals Telltale watered down the games for seem to hate BttF and JP even more than the veteran adventure fans did.
also i did like BTTF and i have not played JP yet but i got to admit Sam & Max and Hector was better as they were hard and i had to use hints some times but with BTTF i only had to use hints at a rare time also im not sure but didnt JP was different than an adventure game? it had some quick time events didnt it?
Actually, the script to Monster Safari was finished ages ago. Apparently now they're writing for Yo Gabba Gabba.
The point is, Homestar Runner's pretty much dead. We're a few days away from having gone a full year without updates. If the Chaps don't have the time to make a two-minute cartoon, they definitely don't have the time to make a full-length video game.
Of course: That press conference was in February, not last year.
Who knows? We might get a Decemberween toon, we might even get a New Year's toon, or we'll probably get nothing. After that, I can't imagine them starting weekly toons again untill the movie is out for all we know... Though either way, Monday's are worthless now.
Now, about the topic.
What I find funny is that people seem to think that newer Telltale games suffer from being one of many balls that Telltale has in the air at the same time and do not consider that maybe the way those games end up being is the way Telltale intended from the beginning.
Because Telltale made a name for itself by making classic point-and-click adventure games, they take a lot of flak when they release a game that doesn't fit the mold and some people say that if that is the way Telltale games are going to be from now on, they will pass on them.
People need to remember one thing: Telltale does not force you to buy every single one of their game (though they'd probably like you to
Video game companies release different kinds of games all the time and you're responsible for knowing which kind of game suits you and which kind doesn't.
For instance, it's fine not to like the kind of gameplay offered by Jurassic Park, but Telltale did not try to pass the game for anything else than what it was (there were screenshots and videos in the Telltale Blog - and various other video gaming websites - long before the game was available for pre-order).
If you only like point-and click adventure games, then maybe Telltale's current output is not for you, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a whole other public who isn't thrilled with Telltale's newer games (and couldn't care less about Sam & Max or Monkey Island).
As for me, I'm a fan of Telltale's point-and-click (and later, click-and-drag) adventure games and I won't lie, I'm a little bit disappointed when they announce a new game that isn't one of those, but I certainly won't blame Telltale for trying something different (so long as they throw me a bone - Bone? - once in a while
One last thing: when I heard about the plans for a Law & Order game, it was the least excited I'd ever been about a Telltale game announcement (I've never watched an episode of the show and it really didn't sound like my kind of game), but now that I've seen the trailer, I'm ready to part with my hard-earned money one more time.